As a music lover of impeccable taste\, odds are that you’re
already looking forward to spending the better part of the next hour – and
several more after that – getting rather obsessively familiar with this l
atest serving of song and groove from Ray Wylie Hubbard. Having no doubt p
layed his last album\, 2010’s A. Enlightenment\, B. Endarkenment (Hint
: There is No C)\, to digital bits — and committed to memory such ear
lier chestnuts as Snake Farm\, Growl\, Eternal and L
owdown\, Crusades of the Restless Knights\, and maybe even e
verything else going all the way back to that 1975Cowboy Twinkies
LP that Hubbard himself would rather you forget – you probably can’t wait
to tuck into his 2012 album The Grifter’s Hymnal and leisurely s
avor it from end to end.

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Mary Gauthier comes off as a practical\,
no-nonsense woman. Stoic\, even. Which wouldn’t seem unusual\, except for
the fact that her songs carry so much emotional punch\, they can leave you
staggering. She has a way of burrowing into that hole so many of us carry
inside our souls\, and emerging with universal truths that show we aren’t
so alone after all.